Church Lady: Mission trip unites Family Church members to assist needy children

KATHLEEN TUTTLE

7:45 AM, Sep 12, 2013

Orbit Village Founder and director Cyndy Waters, left, poses for a picture with Family Church Mission team members Mark and Kathy Matthews, Cathy Martin, Al and Holly Cahoon, Pastor Casey and Amanda Nowlin, not pictured are Esther Gulyes and Bill Birchmeir and their adult granddaughter Becca. The team leaves on Sept. 26 for Nairobi, Kenya.
/Kathleen Tuttle Special to the Eagle

Charlotte Paul, left, and Amanda Nowlin share a moment and some desert at the conclusion of the Orbit Village presentation on Aug. 31. Nowlin looks forward to the Orbit Village mission trip.
/Kathleen Tuttle Special to the Eagle

Orbit Village Project Founder and director, Cyndy Waters, center, shares a moment with Family Church members Donald and Liz Pecora at the conclusion of her presentation on Aug.31.
/Kathleen Tuttle Special to the Eagle

Susan Muenker peruses pictures of Orbit Village children. Muenker currently sponsors 3 children.
/Kathleen Tuttle Special to the Eagle

Orbit Village Project Founder and director, Cyndy Waters shares her passion for helping the poorest of the poor in Kenya at the Family Church on Aug. 31.
/Kathleen Tuttle Special to the Eagle

Church member Judy Boston chooses an item from the Family Church’s Orbit Village giving tree on Aug. 31. Needed items range from $10 for a plastic chair to $200 for a sturdy bicycle.
/Kathleen Tuttle Special to the Eagle

It’s all about families helping families. The Family Church of Marco Island held a reception on Aug. 31 to introduce the congregation to the Orbit Village Project.

Ten team members, headed by the church’s Pastor Casey Nowlin, will leave on Sept. 26 for two weeks in Kenya where they will build a playground, bunk beds and a wall for the Orbit Village. The wall is to keep children safe.

They will also dedicate the nearby Mathare Baptist Church, set up day-care facility at the Mathare Christian Center, make storage benches and paint murals.

Nowlin will also train the newly hired African youth pastor, conduct a vacation Bible school, a bible study, and will host a Carnival Crusade with clown salvation skits, children’s face painting and games. They will also hand out Swahili and Masaai Bibles.

The Orbit Village Project Founder and director, Cyndy Waters, was on hand to explain the project’s genesis, which grew out of the simple act of planting flowers. In the mid 1990s, after a successful career in photography, she returned to her roots in Tennessee. Water’s was on her knees digging in a flower bed of her childhood church when she sensed God calling her to Africa.

Shortly thereafter her church received information about a church planting trip to Nairobi, Kenya. She went. The experience sowed seeds of change that would change her life as well as thousands of others here and in Kenya. Those seeds have sprouted a children’s home, child sponsorships, schools, a Christian Center and churches.

Orbit Village was on the edge of a rock quarry on the outskirts of Nairobi — dusty, bleak and gray, certainly not the Disney Channel’s “Africa.” People eked out a living breaking rocks and lived in 10 by 10 foot rooms, cooking over charcoal. At an elevation of 7,000 feet, the air is cold and dry.

Due to the ravages of war and AIDS there are more than 2 million orphans in Kenya. Only 300 have been adopted this year.

“The world is being called on to do something about the orphans,” said Waters. Adoption is not the only option, child sponsorship is available.

The Village has two licensed sociologists and each child is treated as an individual. They offer “extreme sponsorship” whereby families in the U.S. can really get to know a child. Sponsors are welcome to help another family or help raise a child in the refuge. Those children become part of a greater family — a global family.

“They are your child, you save for their college and wedding,” said Waters.“When they get in trouble we call you.”

Her presentation included many smiling faces of children and youth proudly wearing their blue uniforms. The school takes only the poorest of the poor and paid staff is Kenyan. They serve 1,200 meals a day. To meet increasing needs, they added a high school. Graduates have gone on to Kenyan universities. Teen pregnancy rates are low. No one ages out; graduates may stay on and work on staff.

“The project works so well because we meet needs,” said Waters who would like to replicate Orbit Village’s success.“What you can do in another country on a small amount of money is huge.”

The project has also established a Christian Center in the Mathare Valley, the home of one of the world’s largest slums, where displaced people live in tin and mud shanties without beds, running water or proper sewage sanitation. The center supplies fresh vegetables, mattresses, blankets and plastic sheeting.

Marco Islanders Kathy and Mark Matthews are on Orbit’s board of directors and have sponsored three boys. Kathy, an RN, coordinates the medical missions and the Mathare Christian Center. Mark works on awareness and development.

The couple traveled to Kenya in March and returned with compelling stories and pictures of smiling, healthy children. They shared their enthusiasm with the rest of the church and a team of 10 was formed.

“The church members saw what God is doing in Kenya,” said Nowlin in his Aug. 31 opening remarks.“We plan to partner with missions world wide, not build it and leave it. It will be a long-standing relationship. The Lord’s done amazing things; lives and communities are changed.”

Nowlin’s wife Amanda, who at an early age promised God to do missionary work in Africa, is also going. This will be a return trip to Africa for her.

Al and Holly Cohoon are also team members. This will be Al’s second mission trip; his first was 10 years ago to Mexico. For Holly it will be her first time out the U.S. and her first mission trip.

“God gave me the heart to go,” she said.“You know it’s from Him if you are out of your comfort zone, it’s supported by scripture and people you respect.”

“It’s interesting the way God put together the team,” continued Holly. Each member has a different gift and talent. There is a special needs teacher, two nurses, a pastor and men with experience in development and construction.

“Our hope is that the Family Church will come and establish an ongoing relationship and come back,” said Waters. The children’s lives are enriched when different church groups visit. Recently a church from Tennessee conducted a full-blown music camp. When American youth groups serve oversees they learn that “it’s not just about me anymore.”